


i want you in my dreams

by shemeanswell



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, M/M, Summer Camp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2019-07-06 17:51:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15891036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shemeanswell/pseuds/shemeanswell
Summary: Michael is asocial. Jeremy is just trying to fall asleep.-this is based off a phanfiction i wrote in 2015. i know. i really loved the storyline to it, though so. im rewriting it. if u want to read, dm me on tumblr for a link, @chrisflemingdon't read it unless you're ok with spoilers for this and very bad writing!!





	1. summer

Michael isn’t very good at socializing. 

 

most of his summers were spent playing minecraft on his laptop, next to his open bedroom window. it was the first day of summer, and he planned to spend just like that. that night, he built an entire recreation of the starblaster from The Adventure Zone. he made his own skin for his character. during the night, he sat in his house doing nothing. someone on the server didn’t have a bed. sometimes, while waiting, he scrolled through his instagram feed. Autumn Short was at a skating rink. Min-seo was at disney last week. Diya went with her. so many people were… doing things. he heard the familiar sound of zombies dying outside his virtual home. it was morning. he built a farm. 

 

that morning, his mom opened his door at 6 am to see him still sitting by the window, on his laptop, mining in someone else’s strip mine. his chin sat on his knee, and his eyes looked like they had just gone shopping. 

 

“Michael.” she sighed. she held an empty basket. “you’ve been wearing that shirt for a week.” she set the basket down on a chair in the middle of his room. 

 

“none of my other ones are clean.” he said back, not looking away from the screen. she looked at him. 

 

“so you think the one you’re wearing is clean?” she said. she huffed. “i left a basket for you. do your laundry.”

 

Michael was killing a zombie. “ok.” he said back, his keyboard clicking. 

 

she stared at him. “do you have anything you’re doing with friends anytime soon?” 

 

he found an exit to the cave he was in. he started going up. “uhh. i have a thing with my discord buds tommorow. we’re gonna try playing dungeons and dragons or… something. i don’t know.” he knew that wasn’t what she meant. 

 

“that isn’t what i mean, Michael.” 

 

they were silent for a moment. all you could hear was the sound of Michael opening and closing the door to his house, and right clicking a chest to add the items from his mining journey to it. 

 

his mom walked over and sat at the edge of his bed. she took a pamphlet out of her back pocket and gazed at it for a second, before setting it near him. he glanced at it. the cover said Sunrise Camps. 

 

“what is that?” he asked. 

 

she smiled. “it’s a summer camp!” 

 

Michael raised his eyebrows and looked over at her. “really?” he said. 

 

“i think it would be good for you. you’d meet people, you’d get off of this… minecraft, you would be in nature!” he looked reluctant. her smile faded. “look. just think about it, ok?” she stood up and started walking out. she turned back. “don’t forget the laundry!” 

 

Michael sighed. “i know!” she left. 

 

he quietly exited the game. he looked out his window at the sun rising. he closed his laptop, and his attention was drawn to the pamphlet next to him. he picked it up. it had a picture of a cabin surrounded by trees on the front cover. on the back, there was a phone number with the text “Call us if you’re interested!”, and a picture of a sunrise.

 

he set it back down, and stood up from his bed. it was somewhat cold that morning, even though it was the beginning of summer in New Jersey. he found a red sweatshirt somewhere on his floor, and pulled it on over his blue short sleeved t-shirt and basketball shorts. he turned around, and saw his guitar. he sat down on the floor next to it, and played the fingerpicking pattern from the song Obstacles by Syd Matters for a few minutes.

 

he had always been a musician at heart. the first instrument he learned was the recorder in 5th grade. he sucked at it, but the next year, he had band. it was middle school, so there was no marching involved. he chose the flute. he clearly hadn’t learned from the recorder, because he was awful at the flute as well. he went through a year of horrible flute playing. at the end of the year, he asked his band director if he could switch to the trumpet the next year. she said that if he could fit a years worth of learning into 3 months, then he could go into the next year as a member of the trumpet section. his parents didn’t buy him lessons, so he was left with just youtube videos as his teacher. he practiced non-stop all summer. his neighbors complained twice. when he went back to school, his teacher gave him a playing test, and he passed with a 91%. 

 

he learned the guitar in 8th grade. he saw a video of someone playing his favorite song, and he promptly begged his parents for a guitar for a month before they finally caved in and bought one for him for his birthday. he played it everyday. at first, he was frustrated that his fingers hurt when he pushed down on the strings, and how hard it was to sing and play at the same time, but he got used to both of those things eventually. by freshman year he was able to play pretty well. 

 

he got a ukulele mid freshman year. dodie clark made it too tempting. he was able to play practically any song by a week after he got it, thanks to the guitar. 

 

basically, Michael was a musician. not a very public musician though. most days, he waited until he was home alone to play anything. especially if it involved his voice. sometimes he recorded covers, but he rarely uploaded them anywhere. there was always something wrong with it. he wanted to be perfect before he performed for anyone, and to him, that was almost immpossible.

 

as he was sitting on his bedroom floor, holding his guitar and reflecting, he got a discord notification on his phone. he opened it. 

 

> _ gay jake: @everyone yall are we set on playign tommorrow?  _

 

he typed a response

 

> _ minecraft mikey: yeah i thought so?? y? _

 

> _ bwooke: mhm _

 

> _ gay jake is typing…  _

 

michael stood up and laid down on his side on his bed.

 

> _ gay jake: i think i made d plans earlier today by accident and i forgto _

 

> _ bwooke: dude same lol _

 

> _ gay jake: nice _

 

> _ minecraft mikey is typing…  _

 

> _ minecraft mikey: yeah i was gonna go to the arcade before this was planned so. its chill. _

 

he didn’t really have any plans. he was actually looking forward to the dnd game. but he didn’t have a choice at that point, so he went along. no one said anything in the chat after that. 

 

he dropped his phone on his bedside table and turned around to his back, and stared at the ceiling. he wished he actually had plans, but he didn’t have any friends that would invite him anywhere. summers are always so boring when all you have is yourself. (and minecraft) 


	2. a thousand years

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oo im not completely happy w this but yknow i dont wanna sit on it too long. next chap coming soon im excited to actually get into the plot!

Michael woke up the next day still tired. he fell asleep at 4 am, which was better than never. he scrolled through instagram for a few minutes, then sat up in bed. he took a sip from the water bottle on his bedside table. the pamphlet for the summer camp still sat at the end of his bed. he picked it up and set it on the table instead.

 

he picked up his phone and kept scrolling through social media as he brushed his teeth and then walked downstairs to get a bowl of cereal. Cap’n Crunch Berries, obviously. he ate slowly; he sat by a window in the living room, staring out at a man mowing his lawn across the road.

 

he thought about summer camp. he had looked through the pamphlet yesterday. it was 2 months long. if you’re thinking that’s long for a summer camp, then you’re completely right. but there was no explanation of it anywhere in the packet, or on their website, and it was the only one nearby him that hadn’t started yet. you were allowed to bring a bag of clothes and toiletries that would last 2 months, and one personal item. it also had a no electronics rule.

 

Michael didn't have a social media addiction. sure, he might scroll through ace discourse on tumblr for hours on end and he might have a spam account with a little more than 9,000 posts on it, but it wasn’t like he _depended_ on those things. so he thought he could probably go that long without checking his cell phone.

 

he set the empty cereal bowl in the sink. his mom got home at 5, and it was noon, so he had a couple hours to himself. he walked back upstairs to his bedroom, and sat on the the middle of the floor near the chair. he got his laptop, and searched “should i go to summer camp?”

 

an article popped up: “Top Five Reasons Kids Should Go to Summer Camp”. under it, there was another one with the same one but with “teens” instead of kids. he clicked it. number one on the list was “form relationships”. he scrolled to the next one. “take safe risks”. this article wasn’t really his speed, they were mainly written for parents, so he went back to the google search and typed “yahoo” at the end. tons of pages popped up, and he read through some.

he went over the pros in his mind. nature, friends, marshmallows. these were all good things there were many cons, though, like no technology, the bugs (Michael HATED bugs), sleeping around other people. he sat against his bed, sighing. he spotted his phone, and opened it to message Jake.

 

> _michaelmqll: hey dude i got a question_

 

it took a few minutes for him to respond, but eventually he typed back.

 

> _jbakew: whats up?d im at a smoothie shop rn lol_

 

> _michaelmqll: so my mom wants me to go to this summer camp but idk bc they dont allow like. any tech or anything_

 

> _jbakew is typing.._

 

Michael adjusted so he was sitting with his knees to his chest, biting the end of his thumbnail, holding his phone in his other hand.

 

> _jbakew: ya i meadn like when else are u gonna be able to go out and do that. youred like 16 soon you wont be d able to do any of that kdina stuff. unless youre like a counselour or something_

 

he raised his eyebrows. he was right. he had never been to a summer camp before, so if he didn’t go this time, he might go through his entire life without going to one. on the other hand, you go through life without doing so many things, so what difference would it really make, in the grand scheme of things.

 

> _jbakew: plus marshmallows and stuffd. OH and you could bring an instrument anf get over your Little Bitch Syndrome_

 

> _michaelmqll: mean >:( what even is that _

 

> _jbakew: look it up pussy!!! my fries are her e go to smmenr camp cya_

 

> _jbakew is offline_

 

minus the cursing, Jake was right. he needed to get rid of his stagefright. he didn’t want to always be so scared... he didn’t used to be.

 

nothing happened that caused it. he just grew up, he got more self conscious. he realized that people were looking at him. he realized not everyone was looking at him in the same way. in the past, he went to karaoke bars with his mom; and he would proudly sing whatever songs he knew in the very front of the bar with a smile on his face. he didn’t care. and now, he wished he could go back to feeling that way.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO some things  
> -i dont like capn crunch berries!!! only the ones without berries uwu  
> \- if u see this comment your favorite song ;)))) 4 reasons  
> \- the long camp thing is from cant help falling in lov and i. couldn't rlly change it much even though it doesnt rlly make SENSE but i changed it to 2 months instead of 3 at least  
> \- if you like it so far please comment!!! it helps to motivate me also i really appreciate it so much when ppl comment!!! thank you for reading


	3. new beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> surprise! a super short lil thing during the hiatus. during summer i hope to finish this lol but im still working on it sometimes in school. i have half a chapter written along w this so i thought id just put this up. hope u like it !

Michael stood in the makeup section of a CVS. not to buy anything, just to think over his decision about camp. 

CVS, Target, and Walgreens are all places where time stops. in the middle of the little area where they sell fuzzy socks, you can just zone out until the end of time. the cashier’s vacant expression is almost calming. they’re what some people call ‘liminal spaces’, places where reality isn’t quite tied together. he stared at a blue eyeshadow compact. 

he had stage fright. it hadn’t dawned on him until after him and Jake’s conversation. he really did have Little Bitch Syndrome, and he truly wanted to get over it. music was his life, and it was what he wanted to do for his life, and if he couldn’t manage to sing in public without his voice and fingers trembling, then that would never be a possibility. 

so he decided. he was going to summer camp.

he drove home. it was about 8 pm, and he stared out into the empty road to his house. the sun had just started setting, and the view of the sky was beautiful. he drove silently until he reached his house. he stood outside his car for a few minutes, just looking at the dark sky, glittered with stars. he lived pretty far away from most neighborhoods, so there wasn’t a lot of light pollution. most nights, he could see everything, if he wasn’t spending them playing minecraft. 

he walked inside, and saw his mom sitting at the table in the dining room. he closed the door. 

“mom.” he said, as he walked over to the table and sat across from her. 

she looked up from her book. she was wearing the reading glasses she got from the grocery store. they were blue with rhinestones, and they looked ridiculous. he didn’t say that though. 

“i wanna go to the camp.” 

she smiled. “i knew you would. go up and pack, it starts tomorrow!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO!  
> -michael is basically a self insert at this point lmao i love drugstores  
> -the next chapter will feature a familiar face ;)


	4. meeting

Michael sat on the bus at 6 am. as soon as he was forced to wake up in the morning, he immediately regretted his decision to go to summer camp. but as he stared out the window at the rolling hils and late sunrise, he didn’t feel so bad. he wasn’t even comparing it to minecraft. until he remembered that he didn’t have his phone. but it was ok, because it was a new experience, and he was facing his fears. exactly what he wanted to do.

meanwhile, at the front of the bus sat Jeremy Heere, fellow camper to Michael Mell, and a weird, special kind of insomniac. no matter how hard he tried, no matter how many threrapists he went to, he could never get a restful night of sleep without some kind of music playing. every night before he went to sleep, he pulled up spotify on whatever streaming device was nearest to him, and played some sort of relaxing music. this camp was obviously not the greatest choice, since electronics weren’t allowed, but he had always wanted to go to a summer camp, and he realized last minute this would be his last chance.

Michael stepped off the bus into the hot summer air. he gripped the straps of his backpack with both hands, and began following the line of teenagers walking up a dirt path, which led into what he imagined to be a campsite.

once they were all gathered in the camp, a counselor broke them off into groups.

“hey guys, my name is Jason, i’ll be your main counselor for your time here! your group is who your going to be boarded with. there are four people per group, and you all stay in one cabin with each other.” he was about to list off names, when a short girl with a bob haircut raised her hand.

he looked up from his clipboard. “yes?”

“are there bunk beds?” she asked.

“...yes.”

she whispered “heck yeah.” under her breath.

he started listing names again. Michael listened for his to be called.

“-cabin SQU19: Michael Mell, Christine Canigula, Jeremy Heere, Chloe Valentine. alright that’s it! go ahead and get acquainted with your groups, these are the people you’ll be spending most of your time with, so let’s hope you get along well!” the counselor said.

Michael looked over his group. Christine was a short, cute girl wearing a checkered dress and a jean jacket with green sneakers. she held a blue messenger bag in one hand, and a water bottle filled with a pink liquid in the other.

to his right was Chloe. she was tall, and had long light brown hair. she was wearing a deep blue sequined tank-top, black shorts, and a jacket tied around her waist. her backpack looked heavy on her shoulders, and she was fiddling with her hands like she didn’t have something she was used to having.

he turned to Jeremy next, but as soon as he did, the group started walking towards the cabins, and Michael was behind him. from what he could see now, he was a lanky, dark brown haired boy. He held his hands clasped together in the front, and he walked somewhat nervously ahead of everyone.

when Michael’s group got to their cabin, Jeremy turned around to face the path. he held his hands up to the straps of his backpack now, and he stood on his tip toes looking down through the clearing behind them. his dark brown hair was swept haphazardly across his forehead, covering part of his left eye. even from a few feet away it was easy to see his many freckles spotting his cheeks and nose. his jawline was subtly chiseled, and his eyes were light blue.

while admiring him, Michael was still walking towards the cabin. towards Jeremy. but when he noticed, it was too late. he tripped on a rock, falling into the boy in front of him. Usually this would be a great meet-cute, like in Zoey 101, but this was not what happened. because of the height difference, they did not fall onto each other correctly. Instead, Jeremy landed on the ground, and Michael landed head first, onto Jeremy’s stomach.

he looked up, and was met with Jeremy’s strikingly bright blue eyes staring back at him. “eyes sorry.” Michael said.

this was going to be a long 2 months.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok hi so som notes:  
> -first of all, im back!!! i said i was gonna write this over the summer, and here i am!! school isn't entirely over yet though, and im coughfailinglikefiveclassesrightnowcough but im dealing w it, and this is gonna get DONE in the next 3 months.  
> -i almost put brooke in this instead of chloe bc im a dumbass and forgot she's one of the discord friends   
> -the last sentence of this chapter is the same last sentence of the original's chapter ONE. im rlly dragging this one out more lol  
> -IMPORTANT: pls if you can, comment songs you think michael would like!!! soft ones!! ;))))

**Author's Note:**

> ok. some things!!!  
> \- i don't know how to use ao3 really so apologies if i messed something up in this.  
> \- the minecraft thing isnt ironic. minecraft is gay culture  
> \- i used to be in a discord group and we used to play dnd and idk. i just wanted to add that in.  
> \- i based michael's room off of my own. my bed is right next to a window, im sitting next to it rn n its open a lot. i have a guitar on the floor, and a chair in the middle of my room.  
> \- this might be what you would call Slow Burn but,,, we will See


End file.
